Calling for an end to 'factory farming'

To the Editor:

Please accept this open letter that I delivered and discussed with Jon Hoek, secretary/treasurer of Fair Oaks Farms, at the grand opening of the Fair Oaks Pig Adventure Farm on Monday, Aug. 5.

Instead of glorifying an industry that is destroying the land and subjugating the animals, the high technology of Fair Oaks should be used to help clean up communities in Indiana who are currently, severely impacted by the continued construction/expansion of CAFOs. We must end factory farming.

I was escorted out by the police. Thank you.

Open letter to Jon Hoek follows:

Increasing exposure of corporate deception in every arena, including industrialized animal agriculture, is inspiring a public movement for reclamation of the right to know, and responsibility for, how we treat the earth and the animals we eat.

Claiming that "pork production is morally right, a noble profession and service to humanity" (www.nwtimes.com/business/local/fair-oaks-farms-latest-innovation-goes-hog-wild/article _7c7063d3-3336-5dlc-b7da-cdf8) glorifies a system so unsustainable and cruel that dissolution is historically inevitable.

Animal agriculture is now commonly known as one of the most significant, if not the worst, contributors to the serious environmental problems/diseases in our world today.

Instead of feeding the world, animal factories degrade the land, divert food crops, waste/contaminate water, pollute the air and fail in providing safe/healthy food for anyone, even the rich.

Instead of promoting agri-tourism, indoctrinating our children and defending man's moral right to kill, Fair Oaks should host a national animal agriculture symposium where experts for and against factory farming publicly discuss how we can unite in confronting this issue honestly.

Rev. Marian Patience Harvey

Roachdale